The present invention relates to a combined heat shielding and bonding device for association with an adsorbent packet located within a refrigerant receiver.
By way of background, a refrigerant receiver of an air conditioning system comprises a metal housing containing a conduit structure for conducting refrigerant to and from the housing, and it also contains an adsorbent packet for adsorbing various impurities which may be contained in the refrigerant. In the past, the adsorbent packets were installed in a plurality of ways. It is common practice to weld two portions of the receiver housing to each other after the adsorbent packet has been positioned within the housing. The adsorbent packets usually contain fabric walls which consist of web-bonded polyester fibers or other types of fibers. If the adsorbent packet is too close to the portions of the housing being welded, the walls of the adsorbent packet can melt or otherwise be perforated, thereby spilling the contents with the attendant contamination of the refrigerant. Thus, in the past, various types of efforts were made to space the adsorbent packet walls sufficiently far from the housing being welded so that the adsorbent packet would not be opened. In addition, in the past, there were various ways of immobilizing the adsorbent packet relative to the conduits within the receiver housing to thereby obviate rubbing due to vibration in use which could form holes in the packet which could result in release of the adsorbent. It is with treating the foregoing problems that the present invention is concerned.